Parish and pilgrimage church "Maria Attersee"

High above the village of Attersee, the parish and pilgrimage church "Maria Attersee" stands on the historic Kirchberg, visible from afar across the lake, from where you have a magnificent panoramic view of the Attersee, the Hell Mountains opposite and the Schafberg.

Historical review:
As early as the 6th century, a Bavarian ducal estate stood here, which passed to the Carolingians in 788.  The centre of these extensive possessions was `Atarhoven` = Attersee, which was first mentioned in a document in 885.
In 1007 Emperor Heinrich II founded the bishopric of Bamberg. Rich donations gave the diocese a secure economic foundation. Among the 27 deeds of donation is one that says: "May all believers in Christ know that we have donated the village of Atarhov in the Attergau, which is our property, with everything that belongs to it, with its villages, hamlets, churches ... to the episcopal see of Bamberg ..."
The Bamberg bishops expanded Atarhoven into a mighty medieval castle complex. From the end of the 13th century, this property was mortgaged several times, most recently to the powerful Schaunbergs. In 1793, the Habsburg Duke Albrecht III acquired the entire property in the Attergau from the Bishopric of Bamberg. However, this castle complex fell into disrepair in the 16th century; what remains, however, is the present-day church, which was once the castle chapel in honour of the Assumption of Mary for Attersee Castle.

On the history of the castle:
The nave and presbytery were built in the first half of the 15th century as a two-nave Gothic church. From 1722-1728, the Baroque master builder Jakob Pawanger was commissioned by the patron Franz Ferdinand Count Khevenhüller to carry out the Baroqueisation of the interior and to erect the large side extensions and the mighty church tower.

High altar:
The very beautiful, late Baroque high altar was made by Josef Mathias Götz from Passau. The statues of St. Anne, Mother of Mary and St. Elisabeth, Mother of John the Baptist and the pulpit are by J.M. Götz (1728/39). Of the paintings, only the former high altarpiece is signed - F.X. Gürter 1787. The left wing painting shows St. Joseph, the bridegroom of Mary, and the right wing painting shows the priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.
The centrepiece of the high altar above the tabernacle is the image of Our Lady in a precious rococo silver frame. When the church of St. Georgen i. A. was plundered in 1622, a woman took the image of Mary and used it as a closing board for the chicken coop. When this image kept falling over, the angry woman hit it with an axe, blaspheming. A blood-red stripe appeared at the point of the blow, on the neck of the Mother of God and on the forehead of the Child Jesus, which is still visible to this day. The picture was later transferred by the parish priest of St. Georgen to the church in Attersee, where it can still be seen today.